


Home Once More

by wynnebat



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, HP: EWE, Minister for Magic Hermione Granger, Post-Hogwarts, Power Couple, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:28:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24559960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: “I have brought you gifts,” Viktor says when they part.“Your gifts always come with so much paperwork,” Hermione teases him. A dark wizard in the ministry’s holding cells is a rather unconventional gift.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Viktor Krum
Comments: 16
Kudos: 267
Collections: Rare Pair Shorts - Summer Wishlist Event 2020





	Home Once More

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kent_Alex](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kent_Alex/gifts).



> Harry Potter [rarepair_shorts](https://rarepair-shorts.dreamwidth.org/) Summer Wishlist Event gift for Kent_Alex. I hope you enjoy this fic!

Rumors precede Viktor’s arrival by a matter of weeks. On the day of his arrival, Hermione hears of his every step through the ministry in the form of paperwork and overheard conversations and various just barely polite demands for information from the Wizengamot members who drop by her office. As Minister of Magic and general busybody, there isn’t much that goes on in the ministry without her knowing of it.

Hermione doesn’t sit back and wait—she’s in back to back meetings all morning, having been pushing for this tax reform for too long to be distracted by his return—but she keeps an ear out for him. News of Viktor’s success over the first truly dark wizard who’d come out of Britain since Voldemort had reached Britain before he did. Hermione had a cup of coffee in his honor during her morning briefing that day.

At noon, paperwork from the aurors’ offices arrives along with the Head Auror himself, who sets it on her desk. Harry takes a seat in the visitor’s chair and gripes, “If I have to spend one more day behind a desk, I’m going to run off with Viktor and join his task force. Battling dark wizards is more fun than battling my self-inking quill.”

“You’ll be back as soon as you start to miss spending time with your kids.”

Harry shrugs. “It would take at least a week. The brats banished all the plumbing from the house. I’ve been showering in the training center while it’s being fixed.”

“How are the kids taking it?”

“They’re treating it as a vacation from the evils of the shower.” Harry collects the signed papers from her desk. “I’m off to lunch with Ron. Want to join us?”

Hermione shakes her head. “I can’t. I have too much to do if I’m leaving early today. Let’s all get together later this week.”

“Oh yeah,” Harry says, grinning at her. “You do have a lot to do today.”

“Shut up, Auror Potter,” she tells him. The door opens with a flick of her wand.

Harry laughs as he says, “Minister Granger.”

It’s not the end of the paperwork related to the arrest. The presence of a powerful dark wizard in the ministry’s holding cells isn’t an easy matter and the mountain of paperwork that comes along with the trial of a dark wizard has only begun. Hermione went over every step of the handover and holding process until she was sure it would hold him.

Much as Hermione may wish it, the fall of Voldemort did not put a halt to dark magic throughout the world. The prevalence of dark hearts and poor circumstances continues to bring dark magic into the world, and with it the death and destruction that it can cause. In the decade after the second wizarding war, an international task force for the battle against dark magic was created, based in Bulgaria and the best in the world at its job. They have to be; some of the darkest wizards have come out of Durmstrang, although Britain has had its fair share. Bulgaria heads the task force, which satisfies Hermione, considering that she has enough on her plate as Britain’s head of state.

Hermione’s heart is lighter with every bit of news that travels to her office. She leaves at six that evening, earlier than she usually does, but her staff doesn’t expect her to stay. She takes the floo home from the minister’s waiting room and steps through the fireplace of her home. It’s an international style floo, taking up half the wall and requiring more floo powder, but it’s well worth it considering the many trips it facilitates.

She’s smiling before she even reaches the kitchen. The scent of their favorite takeout permeates the air and a bouquet of fresh roses is the table’s new centerpiece.

Viktor looks up from arranging one of the dishes, setting it back on the table in favor of closing the distance between them. “My love.”

Hermione must not have seen him for too long because her heart skips a beat like it did when she was a teenager and he said the endearment for the very first time. He’d used it to avoid tripping over her name, which by now he’d long since mastered, but it stuck.

She drops her bag to the floor and kisses him. It really has been too long.

“I have brought you gifts,” he says when they part, lingering in each other’s embrace.

“Your gifts always come with so much paperwork,” Hermione teases him. A dark wizard in the ministry’s holding cells is a rather unconventional gift.

“You like paperwork. It is one of the great loves of Hermione Granger.”

“I like you more,” she says, heart in her throat at just how true it is. “Are you hurt? Were there any issues catching him?”

Viktor motions her to a chair, pulling it out for her before pouring them both wine and settling in. “I will tell you the story. You have read the official report?”

“I have.”

“My story is much better.”

“It always is. Your reports never sound like you.” Sometimes she imagines them in Viktor’s voice anyway, his Bulgarian accent settling in between the letters, but it’s so much better in person. “You caught up with him in Belgrade?”

“After he fled London. He is a very wily man. Much smarter than many, but without the personality to be a great leader. I must confess, I am glad of this. He could have been much worse with followers. Eighteen deaths in the span of six months, more in his past that we must investigate. My team was alerted to his appearance in the Serbian magical chambers. We were minutes too late. I was angry. Three weeks we searched for him in muggle areas. I could not floo my love, nor could I leave my team. Small base, limited magic. My team is very sick of me now, yes.”

Hermione laughs. “Their loss.”

“Your gain,” Viktor says, clinking his glass against hers. “We chased him like hounds with magic and information, until he hid in a house in the countryside that belonged to a helpful friend of his. My team took the perimeter and closed in on him. He took two hostages. Both are safe. I was the one to subdue him and I chose to deliver him personally to your holding cells. You will let me know of the trial?”

Nodding, Hermione warns, “It will be a long process. Thank you, Viktor, for finally stopping him. We’re in your debt.” Before she starts to sound like too much of the politician she is, she asks, “Are you staying for long?”

“I thought I would take a break before the next big case,” Viktor says, reaching for her hand. “I miss you.”

“I miss you, too,” Hermione admits. She’s missed his robes over her couch and his liquor in her cabinet, his smile and his laughter, his presence in her bed and in her life. “I should be too busy to be lonely, but it’s not the same without you. What will you do here?”

“Keep company of the love of my life,” Viktor says, squeezing her hand gently. “Establish connections with your auror and hit wizard branches. Visit the Weasley shop; I have been told that there is a new line of defense items.”

“You just want to stock up on prank supplies for your nephews.”

“You are correct,” Viktor says with a smile.

She has always loved his smile. She’s always loved him, too. Hermione loved him as a champion and a quidditch player, and he loved her as a bookworm Gryffindor. Along the way they’d wound up in entirely different careers, ones that didn’t lessen their love for each other so much as give it more room to grow and change.

“I’m glad you’re back,” Hermione says, leaning over the table to kiss him.

Viktor cups her face. “It is good to be home.”

Looking into his eyes, Hermione can only agree.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm also on [Tumblr](https://wynnefic.tumblr.com/).


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